"This is an absurdity, I cannot think of any other word. Nothing of the sort
could happen," Metropolitan Kirill told a Thursday press conference in
Moscow.

Foreign press reports claim that Liberal Democratic Party leader Vladimir
Zhirinovsky and the Russian Communist Party also received oil contracts from
the former Iraqi leader. Kirill said he was perplexed at the "strange
company" the Russian Orthodox Church finds itself in. The metropolitan said
he "will thoroughly analyze the origin of the press reports and see what is
behind them."